It’s been a busy day on the impeachment front after Tuesday night’s announcement from the White House that Donald Trump was above the law and the U.S. Constitution:
- Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi responded to that announcement with a warning that “continued efforts to hide the truth of the President’s abuse of power … will be regarded as further evidence of obstruction,” and that “You will be held accountable.”
- Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, surprising no one, chose to join Mr. Trump in spitting on the Constitution, as he peddled nonsense about Democrats not following the proper procedures for impeachment, ignoring the obvious fact that the Constitution gives the House "the sole Power of Impeachment."
- Donald Trump had a busy morning rage tweeting about his impeachment, tossing out lies like they were rolls of paper towels.
- Trey Gowdy, the former Republican congressman who once declared, “The notion that you can withhold information and documents from Congress no matter whether you are the party in power or not in power is wrong. Respect for the rule of law must mean something, irrespective of the vicissitudes of political cycles," is reportedly joining Team Trump in disrespecting the law.
- Republican Sen. Martha McSally, who is up for re-election in 2020, has “undergone an abrupt shift on impeachment, from celebrating it as a ‘kamikaze mission’ by Democrats to taking her role in the matter ‘very seriously.’”
- Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, best known for the sale of his soul to Donald Trump, and “The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee—J.U.D.I.C.I.A.R.Y. Committee—is planning to ‘rally his Republican colleagues’ in the Senate to sign a letter in solidarity with Donald Trump, declaring that the phone call now at the center of the impeachment inquiry, between Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, is not an impeachable offense.”
- White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, along with many of his fellow rats, ”are hoping the president deals with this [impeachment] himself, and everyone is trying to keep their heads down," a former senior official in the administration told Politico. Mick is lying low, but “everyone is lying low," that same former official said. "Popping your head up will only lead to bad things."
- Vice President Joe Biden got on the impeachment train, declaring, “With his words and his actions, President Trump has indicted himself ... Trump has violated his oath of office, betrayed this nation, and committed impeachable acts. To preserve our Constitution, our democracy, our basic integrity, he should be impeached."
- The Oath Keepers, a far-right, fully armed group of racists who have echoed Donald Trump’s call for civil war, will reportedly be providing security at a Trump rally at Minneapolis’ Target Center. While not strictly impeachment-related, it’s worth mentioning what we’re facing in today’s political climate.
- Former national security officials are “finally speaking out about the dire threat that Donald Trump poses to U.S. national security. But a consensus, probably long held and kept under wraps, has definitely emerged as Trump lurches off the rails threatening to take the country with him … The stakes are just too high to for these officials to stay silent even at risk of becoming woven into the ‘deep state’ conspiracy theory that has flourished during Trump’s presidency.”
- Donald Trump “is just shutting it all down. He simply cannot afford to let anymore sunlight shine on his efforts to extort foreign allies for his own political gain and at great risk to U.S. national security. His actions were an all-out betrayal of the country and an inherent disqualifier in any functional democracy.”